Patsy Takemoto Mink: Japanese-American Students at Wilson

Patsy Takemoto Mink

“We must begin to change our entire attitude toward the roles of the sexes so it will not only be accepted, but expected, that women will become corporate board chairs, university presidents – even President of the United States! – Patsy Mink 1972

In interviews, Patsy described her family’s experience of Pearl Harbor. “We had been up late, the night before, Dec. 6, celebrating my birthday and we slept late that day. We didn’t know what was happening – we were 100 miles from the naval base – until the Boy Scouts came and told us to turn out our light. The cane fields were burning, and we might be considered ‘Jap spies’. She recalled the terrible uncertainty of worrying whether her family would be interned in one of the mainland camps. “They took 9000 without a trial.” She remembered how it was to be called ‘dirty Jap’ in school while nine of the men in her family fought in  the U.S. Army.

Letter to Wilson President Havens

President Havens was responsible for bringing three Japanese-American students from California to Wilson to complete their degrees after families were detained in internment camps.  Havens provided scholarships and reported to the organizing committee, regarding any trouble with the town: 

“The obvious difficulties in the academic and town communities we have not encountered. The College accepted the students as what they are: American citizens, who, through no fault of their own, are in an unusually difficult situation. We have had no complaints from the town of Chambersburg, possibly because their arrival was announced in the newspaper in a simple and straight forward way. We tried to make it quite clear that they were American Citizens and that their presence here was endorsed by the War Relocation Authority.”

Patsy Takemoto Mink: Civil Rights Activism

Mink was disturbed by mass police actions against the Black Panthers in 1968, and torn about her feelings about the trial of the ‘Chicago Seven.’ “I find myself torn between my feelings as a lawyer and my feelings as an individual concerned about civil rights and liberties. I don’t condone all the behavior of the defendants and their counsel, but that’s not the issue. The trial should never have happened – to say “Because you’re an outsider, your thoughts are criminal, your free speech rights are revoked – that is appalling.”

Patsy Takemoto Mink: Japanese-American Students at Wilson